ἀφ᾽ ὧν: for “ἀπό”, denoting one's resources, cp. 1127 n. ἔχοιμι: optat. of indefinite frequency in past time; cp. Ph. 289 n.: Tr. 905“κλαῖε δ᾽ ὀργάνων ὅτου” | “ψαύσειεν”. λιπαρεῖ, earnest, devout: cp. 451 n.— “προὔστην σε”, presented myself (as a suppliant) at thy shrine. Similarly “προστάτης” is ‘one who presents himself before a god,’ ‘a suppliant,’ O. C. 1171, O. C. 1278.The only other trace of “προστῆναι” as = ‘to approach,’ with an acc., is in a fragment from the “Τυρώ” of Sophocles (fr. 599, Nauck 2nd ed.). Athenaeus, in illustrating the word “καρχήσιον”, quotes it as follows (p. 475 A): “Σοφοκλῆς δὲ Τυροῖ”: “προστῆναι μέσην” | “τράπεζαν ἀμφὶ σίτια” (“σῖτα” Macrobius) “καὶ καρχήσια”: adding, “πρὸς τὴν τράπεζαν φάσκων προσεληλυθέναι τοὺς δράκοντας κ.τ.λ.” The meaning was, then, that the serpents ‘approached the table’; a parallel for the use here. Schweighäuser, indeed, conjectured “προσστῆναι” (cp. Aesch. Pers. 203“βωμὸν προσέστην”), and Bergk, less well, “προσπτῆναι”. Blaydes and Wecklein read ᾿πέστην: but “ἐπέστην σε” as = ‘approached thee’ would be unexampled (see on Tr. 339).
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Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part VI: The Electra. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1894.
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